Orange's Britt Hendricks deployed with State Emergency Services to fight 2023 Canadian wildfires

One of the NSW State Emergency Services Orange unit's rescue team leaders, Britt Hendricks and her partner, Tyler Johnson, both joined Orange's SES two-and-a-half years ago after relocating from Sydney.

A civil engineer and disaster-management specialist, Miss Hendricks flew across the globe on Tuesday, June 27, as part of Australia's third deployment group to provide humanitarian aid in Canada.

"I really love how both my SES career and my professional career have helped each other out significantly," Miss Hendricks said.

"[Adding to] those professional skills allows you to get access to incredible opportunities like this."

About 3.8 million hectares have already been burned across Canada since wildfires started on May 27, with 20,000 people currently displaced after more than 400 fires have wreaked havoc.

Each of Australia's SES members helping have been hand-picked for being experts in their fields, with Orange's unit commander saying the deployment bucket was filled with several thousands of people.

"Britt's one of the most capable people I've ever come across and this is a pretty big tick in the box for her, it's a massive career highlight," Rob Stevens said.

"She's been deployed overseas before and [this type of work is] her speciality bag, that's her bread and butter."

Part of another stint abroad, Miss Hendrick's humanitarian team specialised in restoring water supplies to devastated areas in Third World countries at the time. The crew redesigned and rebuilt infrastructure that had been wiped off the map.

More recently, she was dropped into Molong and Eugowra during the November 2022 floods, taking along her role of swift-water rescue technician and leading her Orange team.

With advanced skills in logistics and supply thrown into her package, Miss Hendricks' high-level training will now support resources management to out-of-control fire zones across Canada.

"She's very switched on and will be an invaluable asset over there, it took her about two-and-half seconds for our very-keen-Britt to say 'yes'," Mr Stevens said.

"The way she can read situations in real-time, and the knowledge she has of hydrology, is astounding. So, to say we're fortunate and that she's a very intricate part of the unit back home in Orange, would be downplaying her role."

Mr Stevens said the Orange crew "couldn't be prouder" of Miss Hendricks' deployment, with unprecedented challenges she'll soon be faced with on Canadian soil.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, there were 427 active wildfires as of Friday, June 23, and nearly 50 per cent carried an 'out of control' status.

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